An Infinity of Interpretations


Book Description

In An Infinity of Interpretations, Dr. Kimmons explores a simple thesis: Life has no meaning except what we assign to it. Dr. Kimmons simple thesis helps us begin to understand why there is such a variety of interpretations of just about everything encountered in modern times, including ideas and behavioral phenomena from politics, science, social science, entertainment, and religion. Dr.Kimmons proposes that most of what we want to accomplish in this lifetime is driven not by a quest for money, power, sex, glory, religion, or objective knowledge. Rather, what we want to accomplish in this lifetime is driven by our desire to understand, justify, and perpetuate our life. While including bits and pieces of his own life story (along with social commentary about a variety of matters taking place in these times), in this book Dr. Kimmons addresses the origins of his thesis and uses Freud and White as part of a theoretical framework for his thesis. The core of Dr. Kimmons book, however, is his attempt to illustrate how individuals may actualize themselves through completely different processes but all with the same ultimate goal or end in mind: To understand, justify, and perpetuate ones life. Is it true that there are few, if any, absolutes in this world? Dr. Kimmons seems to believe that, and through his examination of a simple thesis encourages us to proceed carefully in this life lest we offend life itself.




The Limits of Interpretation


Book Description

Presents four theories describing the limits of literary interpretation, challenging "the cancer of uncontrolled interpretation" that diminishes the meaning and the basis of communication. -- Back cover.




The Open Work


Book Description

This book is significant for its concept of "openness"--the artist's decision to leave arrangements of some constituents of a work to the public or to chance--and for its anticipation of two themes of literary theory: the element of multiplicity and plurality in art, and the insistence on literary response as an interaction between reader and text.




The Interpretation of Fairy Tales


Book Description

A Jungian psychologist argues how careful analyses of fairy tales like Beauty and the Beast can lead to a deeper understanding of human psychology Of the various types of mythological literature, fairy tales are the simplest and purest expressions of the collective unconscious and thus offer the clearest understanding of the basic patterns of the human psyche. Every people or nation has its own way of experiencing this psychic reality, and so a study of the world's fairy tales yields a wealth of insights into the archetypal experiences of humankind. Perhaps the foremost authority on the psychological interpretation of fairy tales is Marie-Louise von Franz. In this book—originally published as An Introduction to the Interpretation of Fairy Tales —she describes the steps involved in analyzing and illustrates them with a variety of European tales, from Beauty and the Beast to The Robber Bridegroom. Dr. von Franz begins with a history of the study of fairy tales and the various theories of interpretation. By way of illustration, she presents a detailed examination of a simple Grimm’s tale, The Three Feathers, followed by a comprehensive discussion of motifs related to Jung’s concept of the shadow, the anima, and the animus. This revised edition has been corrected and updated by the author.




Intimations of Infinity


Book Description

This is a remarkable work which captures the reader's imagination as only few books do. From a description of the counting system of Iqwaye people of Papua New Guinea, the author develops a deeper and broader interpretation of the Iqwaye kinship system and cosmology, culminating in a powerful critique of western assumptions about the development of rational thought.




Nietzsche as Affirmative Thinker


Book Description

The full century that has elapsed since Nietzsche was at the height of his work did not obliterate his impact. In many ways he is still a contemporary philosopher, even in that sense of 'contemporary' which points to the future. We may have outgrown his style (always, however, admirable and exciting to read), his sense of drama, his creative exaggeration, his sometimes flamboy ant posture of a rebel wavering between the heroic and the puerile. Yet Nietzsche's critique of transcendental values and, especially, his attack on the inherited conceptions of rationality remain pertinent and continue to pro voke anew cultural critique or dissent. Today Nietzsche is no longer discussed apologetically, nor is his radicalism shunned or suppressed. That his work remains the object of extremely diverse readings is befitting a philosopher who replaced the concept of truth with that of interpretation. It is, indeed, around the concept of interpretation that much of the rem:wed interest in Nietzsche seems to center today. Special emphasis is being laid on his manner of doing philosophy, and his views on interpretation and the genealogical method are often re-read in the context of contemporary hermeneutics and "deconstructionist" positions.




The Beginning of Infinity


Book Description

'Science has never had an advocate quite like David Deutsch ... A computational physicist on a par with his touchstones Alan Turing and Richard Feynman, and a philosopher in the line of his greatest hero, Karl Popper. His arguments are so clear that to read him is to experience the thrill of the highest level of discourse available on this planet and to understand it' Peter Forbes, Independent In our search for truth, how far have we advanced? This uniquely human quest for good explanations has driven amazing improvements in everything from scientific understanding and technology to politics, moral values and human welfare. But will progress end, either in catastrophe or completion - or will it continue infinitely? In this profound and seminal book, David Deutsch explores the furthest reaches of our current understanding, taking in the Infinity Hotel, supernovae and the nature of optimism, to instill in all of us a wonder at what we have achieved - and the fact that this is only the beginning of humanity's infinite possibility. 'This is Deutsch at his most ambitious, seeking to understand the implications of our scientific explanations of the world ... I enthusiastically recommend this rich, wide-ranging and elegantly written exposition of the unique insights of one of our most original intellectuals' Michael Berry, Times Higher Education Supplement 'Bold ... profound ... provocative and persuasive' Economist 'David Deutsch may well go down in history as one of the great scientists of our age' Scotsman




Interpretation and Overinterpretation


Book Description

This book brings together some of the most distinguished figures currently at work in philosophy, literary theory and criticism to debate the limits of interpretation.




Transforming the Hermeneutic Context


Book Description

This book presents contemporary analyses of interpretation by some of the most prominent figures in contemporary philosophy and literary criticism. These essays question and transform traditional statements on the aims, methods, and techniques of interpretation. The essays demonstrate how contemporary discussions of interpretation are necessarily sent back to the hermeneutic tradition. Emphasizing the importance of Friedrich Nietzsche’s influence on the contemporary debates concerning current interpretive practices, this volume traces the differences in interpretive perspectives generated in the writings of Michel Foucault, Eric Blondel, Julia Kristeva, Jacques Derrida, Manfred Frank, Werner Hamacher, and Jean-Luc Nancy. The essays by Foucault, Blondel, Frank, Hamacher, and Nancy appear here for the first time in English.




Infinity and Me


Book Description

When I looked up, I shivered. How many stars were in the sky? A million? A billion? Maybe the number was as big as infinity. I started to feel very, very small. How could I even think about something as big as infinity? Uma can't help feeling small when she peers up at the night sky. She begins to wonder about infinity. Is infinity a number that grows forever? Is it an endless racetrack? Could infinity be in an ice cream cone? Uma soon finds that the ways to think about this big idea may just be . . . infinite.